Formation of Open Source Community

Following the October 2013 release of Arches, further development of the software will take place through an open source community, with members expected to come from cultural heritage authorities, other heritage-related organizations, research institutions, and the software development field. The community will assume responsibility for maintenance of the software and decision making for the future of the Arches project. The GCI and WMF anticipate being two of many stakeholders within the community.

It is envisioned that the community will organize itself to adopt the technical and social infrastructure now common to online open source communities, including tools and best practices for version control, bug tracking, decision making, and communications, for which English will be the primary language. The system's open source license will require that enhancements to its code be submitted to the Arches community for possible inclusion within the Arches code base. GCI-WMF believe that a thriving open source community will be a key determinant to the Arches system being broadly adopted and supported for use over the long term. Based on this belief, the GCI and WMF are committed to providing resources to support the community's website and management during the community's first years of existence.